Why Is There A Head Pattern On Wine Caps?
Nov 21, 2022
The head print on the wine cap is actually called the CRD wine cap (Capsule CRD), where CRD is the abbreviation of Capsule Représentative de Droit, which means duty paid wine cap. In simple terms, this label is a tax mark that appears on wines sold in France and on some French wines exported, indicating that the winery has paid excise tax, so that the wine can circulate in France.
Wines used for export do not need to pay this tax, so most of the imported French wines we can buy do not have this label, but there are naturally exceptions: some French wineries may have an error in the proportion of export quotas and the last export, and some wines used for domestic sales may also be exported to China, so it is still possible to buy French wines with CRD caps.
On the outer circle of Marianne's profile picture, the distributor's province code is marked (represented by numbers, e.g. number 33 is the province of Guironde where Bordeaux is located), as well as the dealer's code:
R (Récoltant) stands for winegrower;
N (Non-récoltant) stands for non-winegrower;
E (Entrepositaire agréé) stands for integrated wine merchants.
The three digits next to the above letters, such as 503 in the picture above, are the filler/producer's, or the CRD is the administrative approval number of the cap dispenser.
